Gov. John Hickenlooper is close to wrapping up his fifth legislative session. (Photo By Brent Lewis/The Denver Post)

Gov. John Hickenlooper urged lawmakers Thursday to kill a House bill banning red-light cameras and photo radar, and instead introduce new legislation with restrictions on the devices and the revenues they raise.

Last year, a red-light camera bill from a fellow Democrat, then Speaker House Mark Ferrandino, died after the governor made it clear he didn’t want the measure making it to his desk.

This year, Hickenlooper made his suggestions known publicly rather than working behind the scenes. He proposed the legislature restrict the use of fines to be credited only toward traffic safety improvements and related purposes, rather than to a local government’s general operating revenue.

He also said it should limit the use of photo-radar and red-light cameras to intersections and road/highway segments located in school zones, construction and roadway work zones, areas determined to have disproportionately high traffic accidents, injuries and fatalities, areas with high volumes of traffic violations coupled with resident or business requests for automated traffic enforcement.

“Lastly, the General Assembly should direct the Colorado Department of Transportation to conduct a comprehensive study of the use of these technologies, including an impartial analysis on their impacts to road safety and effect on driver behavior,” the governor said.

“We believe this approach will preserve local governments’ authority to decide whether to employ this important traffic safety tool, while also ensuring public confidence and trust.”

A bill in the Colorado House would ban red-light traffic cameras, like this one at East Sixth Avenue and East Speer Boulevard in Denver. (Helen H. Richardson, Denver Post file photo)

A bill that effectively bans red-light cameras and photo radar is stalled in the House after a Democratic lawmaker “complicated” the situation by voting for the measure when it had been expected to die in committee or at least be changed to a study.

“I told people that I would probably oppose the bill,” said Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, but he instead he voted with Republicans in the Appropriations Committee last Friday to send the measure to the House for debate.

“I think it’s fair to say that people are frustrated that I complicated it,” Singer said Wednesday.

The bill so far has not been called up for debate; the session must end by midnight one week from today.

The Colorado Municipal League and various police officials oppose House Bill 1098, saying such devices enhance public safety. The bill would ban local governments from using vehicle-identification systems to identify the owners of vehicles suspected of the traffic violations.

During a legislative hearing in 2014 to overturn an ammunition magazine limit, Weld County Sheriff John Cooke holds up two high capacity 30-round magazines to demonstrate that it is impossible to identify which is an illegal magazine and which is a legal magazine. He is seated next to Rep. Chris Holbert, R-Parker. This year, both Cooke and Holbert are senators and have introduced a bill to overturn the magazine limit. (Photo By Helen H. Richardson/ The Denver Post)

Four Democrats have signed into a Senate bill that repeals a ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines, one of the most controversial measures of the 2013 legislative session.

Senate Democrats co-sponsoring the bill are Kerry Donovan of Vail, Cheri Jahn of Wheat Ridge and Leroy Garcia. In the House, Democrat Ed Vigil of Fort Garland is a co-sponsor. Vigil was vocal in his opposition of his party’s gun-control measures.

The prime sponsors of Senate Bill 175 are Republican Sens. Chris Holbert of Parker and John Cooke of Greeley and Rep. Steve Humphrey of Severance. The bill was introduced Friday afternoon and assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

House Republicans on Thursday unveiled a measure that would outlaw abortion and make it a felony were a health care provider to administer such a procedure, drawing ire from Democrats who castigated it as meddling “in the private relationship between a woman and her doctor.”

Rep. Steve Humphrey, R-Severance.

House Bill 1133 is sponsored by Rep. Steve Humphrey, R-Severance, and a handful of Republicans, including Rep. Perry Buck of Windsor, and House Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso of Loveland.

“We’re losing the sanctity of life in this country,” said Buck, whose husband, Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck, is among a field of Republicans vying for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination this year. “Alternatives to abortion are what I will support.”

The bill would make it a class 3 felony for a health care provider to administer an abortion. The only exceptions would be if a doctor said the woman’s life is in danger or if a doctor “provides medical treatment to the mother that results in the accidental or unintentional injury or death to the unborn child.” Rape or incest is not an exception under the bill.

Rep. Ray Scott is proposing a bill for the 2014 session that reduces the mandate for rural electric associations from 20 percent to 15 percent.

“I am hopeful this compromise will be agreeable to my Democrat colleagues,” he said, in a news release from House Republicans.

Scott’s bill is part of the House GOP agenda for the upcoming session, which was released this afternoon. House Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso said their focus will be on jobs and the economy — which likely will be the agenda of the House Democrats, too. The difference, of course, is how each caucus gets there.

“Seeing the unemployment rate in Colorado drop is positive news, but many communities around the state are still experiencing serious economic hardship,” DelGrosso said. “Our 2014 legislative agenda includes bills designed to help communities across Colorado by reducing energy costs and regulations on small businesses.”

[media-credit name=”Provided by McLachlan” align=”alignnone” width=”495″][/media-credit] Rep. Mike McLachlan, a Durango Democrat, served in the U.S. Marines and did a tour of duty in Vietnam. Here he is in boot camp, third row from the top, last one on the right.

Friday is Military Appreciation Day at the state Capitol, where lawmakers who can still fit into their service uniforms often show up wearing them. The legislature will honor those who have served with speeches, resolutions and, hopefully, some brevity.

Lawmakers are hosting a reception at 8 a.m. in the west foyer to honor veterans and veterans organizations, then will head to the House floor at 9 a.m. for the tributes.

Leroy Garcia

Among those who served is Rep. Leroy Garcia, a Pueblo Democrat who took office this month. He was in the Marines from 2001 to 2007, and was deployed to Iraq in 2003. That’s when he was reassigned and became a mortuary affairs specialist.

“My job was to ensure that my fellow service members who had given the ultimate sacrifice for our country returned home with respect and dignity,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave thanks supporters after her win in the 2006 election. (AP Photo/John Epperson)

Former Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave once told a staffer she could probably support civil unions because it wasn’t marriage, according to a Facebook posting.

The post was written by state Rep. B.J. Nikkel, of Loveland, who served as Musgrave’s district director in the 4th Congressional District. Nikkel became a hero in the gay community this session for voting with Democrats to send a civil-unions bill out of its first committee hearing. Some conservatives consider her a traitor.

Nikkel, in taking on a Musgrave family member on Facebook, said in her post that her civil-unions vote doesn’t make her a liberal any more than Musgrave’s support of the bailout and other issues makes Musgrave a liberal.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.